The Historama Alex Ben-Arieh P.O.Box 32128 Tel Aviv, Israel 61321 Phone: +972-547-680-086 Fax: +972-3-546-1971 |
Israeli Militaria Primer |
RESOURCE MENU: Uniforms & Shoulder Straps Flags, Colors and Standards The Palestine Police & "Notrut" Translate Historama 1 Translate Historama 2 |
Given that the Israel Defense Forces are based on numerous complex roots, like the Hagana, Palmach etc., each with its own organization and history, there were a number of ways in which this material could be presented. To make nagivation, information access and update as easy as possible, I've chosen to create this "primer" on a formation-by-formation basis, with clear starting and ending lines for each unit. At the moment, this page will focus on the IDF from the moment of its foundation in 1948, onwards. This page will cover the Israeli Army, Navy and Air Force; hopefully the Border Guard, Police and SLA will be included here too. This page, like some others on this site, is organic - prepared in the absence of much literature in English or Hebrew, with (at the moment) no assistance from government bodies and mis-functioning military websites, in a field of militaria with almost no literary foundations. As a result information here will be constantly revised, updated and corrected. It's not a final authority on Israeli militaria now, but hopefully in time it will develop into a source written with finality and certainty. In the meantime I hope you find the materials here helpful and I invite your suggestions, questions and contributions. |
UNIFORMS & SHOULDER STRAPS In order to introduce the subject, we'll begin with basis for militaria - the uniforms, on which all other militaria is connected. Once we understand what kinds of uniforms existed in the IDF, we'll be able to learn where insignia was worn; and from there it will be easier to branch off into subsequent specializations like campaign ribbons, headwear, belts and so on. In this section, we'll get introduced to the 3 standard varieties of uniforms which exist in all our services - our "Dress" or "Service Uniform" (known as "Uniform-A", or "Madei Alef" in Hebrew), our "Battle Dress" or "Work Uniform" (known as "Uniform-B", or "Madei Bet" in Hebrew), and our rarely seen/used "Ceremonial Uniform" (called "Madei Sharad" in Hebrew). My distinctions may diverge from official military deliniations: I relegate all tunics and jackets to that last category as they have never formed part of our standard dress code, and also because their basis - the shirt beneath - is the element of the uniform we really see most often (and that I relegate to the section on dress/service uniforms). We will also get introduced to service-arm uniforms, for the Navy, Air Force, armoured services and any other special pieces for specific units (particularly camoflauge, which is rare in our forces). To begin this section we should be aware of the following standards in the IDF:
A Crash-Course in Early Foreign Uniform Identification Although the IDF adhered to an obvious standard of wearing better looking uniforms for service wear and rougher looking articles for work and battle wear, much of its initial stocks - whether used or just derived from other foreign armies - included articles from the lower, more informal end of an army's attire: "drill" or working kit, shirts and the like; less emphasis on tunics and proper "dress" attire (as defined in other armies) ...And there are the stocks of carry-overs from the pre-State armed Jewish formations adding more complexity to the picture. And since much of the military's early attire was of this low-end simple nature, on the surface it could be dismissed as a heterogenious mass of foreign clothes all using the same materials. A headache of an issue for the layman to sort out. But it's not all similar (for better or worse), and in order to distinguish sources of uniforms from this mass, we have to know what details to look for. With period color photographs scarce to come by, we have to rely on analytical skills in confronting black and white and often unclear photographs. Being that this is an "organic" document which will develop and be corrected along the way, I'm additing this section as a sort of "thinking out aloud" corner to explain the manner by which I shall be trying to discern the origins of the IDF's early uniforms. With that, we'll become 5-minute experts in the finer details of British and American - and possibly even Canadian or even German uniforms, particularly drill and work uniforms. A better scholar than myself in these fields could probably name 100 different details to look out for, but I'm going to focus primarily on buttons and pant belt loops for the time being: BUTTONS: USA (and 1 French): |
United Kingdom & Canada: A salent difference between British and American buttons is the "dip" in the surface: American buttons have a bulge in the center whereas British ones have a curved depression in the center. Canadian and British plastic buttons look similar but Canadian metal ones bear a pattern similar to American plastic buttons. |
Germany (former Third Reich): A distasteful thought, but period German plastic and thin metal buttons with a dish-bowl shape do look similar to British ones - especially in photos lacking sharp detail. |
3 Metal Tunic Buttons and 3 other metal and wooden buttons: |
Thin Metal "Dish" Buttons: |
PANT LOOPS USA, UK and Canada: |
DRESS / SERVICE UNIFORMS ("MADEI-ALEF") Presenting the dress / service uniforms on it's own from 1948 poses a small problem for the 'teacher' insofar that from 1948 until 1952, there actually wasn't a formal distinction made between dress and work uniforms. A "dress" uniform was simply a cleaner, better decorated version of a work/battle dress uniform. (Ironically to a large degree such an blurring of the lines exists to this day, although these days it is possible to positively distinguish between these two types of dress.) Also, as shoulder strap designs have not undergone major changes since 1948, and are an integral part of our uniform, their appearance will be included in our coverage of uniforms (the development of their nomenclature, however will appear in a separate section). As regards differences in their appearance on dress and service uniforms, the key general distinction is this: on dress uniforms they are physical, relief, stamped attachments and on work/battle uniforms they are printed on fabric slide-ons. Examples will be highlighted in the pictures. Here are some examples of IDF ground forces dress uniforms (shirt uniforms, not tunic uniforms - see the "Ceremonial" uniform section for actual tunics) from the period 1948-49: |
CATCHING UP: Let's take a pause and recollect materials to confirm some of our findings so far. Below we have some period piece color pictures of the American khaki uniform. The first is of the Pacific Theater of Operations Allied Supreme Commander, General Douglas MacArthur, in Japan, 1945, with his staff. It's not easy to locate pictures of this uniform with the straight-lined pocket flaps as seen here - many photos show American troops with corner-cropped shirt pockets. The shirts seen here do have shoulder straps, and the same number of buttons as in the photos above (and below) - 4, with the top fifth button left open. The next photo, of MacArthur in liberated Manila on 2 August 1945, shows a sharper close-up of his shirt details, however here though his pockets are straight-flapped, the bottom corners are cropped (the shirts in the previous picture look straight all around). Note its surface shine. The last picture, in black and white, is of the nascent IDF in action, in 1948: here the "service" shirt is being worn in the battlefield (a common occurence) by a "Negev" brigade staff officer on the right (to his right is the brigade's operations chief and future commander of Central Regional Command in the 1967 Six-Day war, Uzi Narkis, and on the far left is the brigade commander, Nachum Sarig). Though not in color, the IDF's khaki shirt looks identical to those seen in the previous pictures of the Americans in the Pacific. |
The pant flaps: although we recognize that the pant waist loop flaps seen above may be a uniquely Israeli feature, lets observe a few pre-War photographs to appreciate its ubiquitousness amongst the Israeli pre-State forces. The implication here is that I have not yet seen pictures of British (or other Allied) soldiers with identical styled flaps. |
Initial developments 1949-52: (as they relate to dress / service uniforms) in the beginning of 1949 the IDF instituted the wear of Summer and Winter uniforms: summer uniforms were of cotton in light-khaki color (probably all based on the American design seen above), and including shorts; winter uniforms featured specifically woolen dark khaki tunics and overcoats (probably the brown colored former "European Theater" shirts of the US Army; both to be covered in separate subject sections below). The IDF continued to maintain separate summer and winter uniforms until 1978, when the summer uniform style became the standard format of dress - shorts having been discarded long before, sometime just after the War of Independence. Around 1949-50 the IDF intituted the use of metal-stamped shoulder-strap ranks in place of the thin rigid cloth pieces attached to the shoulder-strap sliders, on Madei Alef uniforms. Since then, this has been one of the key distinguishing devices beween 'Alef' and 'Bet' uniforms. Also at the start of the 1950's the military instituted the wear of shoulder "tags" - long, round or shield-tipped plastic-fabric tags stitched to the left shoulder of a [summer] shirt or [winter] jacket or sweater. Although pre-State formations had worn such devices before, they were absent on uniforms of the War of Independence. These hallmarks of IDF militaria will be covered in a separate section below. Finally, in April 1952, the military did adopt regulations to distinguish between dress/service uniforms and work/battle-dress uniforms. The appearance of especially marked and manufactured work/battle-dress uniforms will be covered in a separate section below. |
In the early 1950's the IDF also started to produce domestically made and styled uniforms, and by mid-decade began to introduce into use new olive colored uniforms. These were instituted into the ground forces, gradually replacing the light khaki pieces (which in turn became the work/battle dress uniforms instead). The Navy and Air Force as well as other support corps continued to wear light khaki in the meantime, however. Moshe Dayan as a profile in changing service uniforms, 1948 - 1956: |
Further develoments, early 1950's: perhaps as early as 1950, the IDF started to incorporate the use of shoulder "tags" (known as "Tagei Katef" in Hebrew) as a means of displaying and identifying a soldier's assigned corps. The use of these devices was not new to the IDF, although in time it has become a relatively unique form of insignia to the IDF and seen rarely with other armed forces (perhaps the only other ones are the Singaporean and South African Defense Forces - both of whom received training from the IDF in later years): such devices were used on Jewish Brigade Group uniforms in the Second World War (a photo will be shown in the "Tag" section), and even the underground Irgun (also known as "Etzel") forces used these "tag" insignia. These "tags" were about 10-12 centimeters long, with either round or shield-shaped tips at the base, and attached only by their top edge, only to "Madei Alef" shirts, on the left side just beside the shoulder strap; on winter clothes they would be similarly attached to the left shoulder as well. In a separate section here we will cover the development and appearance of these tags. Around this time too, similar Regional Command patches were instituted on "Ceremonial" uniforms - and will also be shown in that section below. Together with the incorporation of "tagei katef", the IDF also instituted sleeve patches for Sergeants and NCOs, which are worn on both service and work uniforms, on the upper sleeve (which side is a matter I'm still checking - there is a lot of inconsistency in actual wear). One source mentions the use of "profession patches" around this period, indicating a soldier's specialization, worn on his right sleeve. I have still to confirm that. |
[This page is being assembled while abroad and away from resources that I'd otherwise have at hand. While I confirm more details on service/dress uniforms I'll begin the chapter on battle-dress/work uniforms below:] |
BATTLE-DRESS / WORK UNIFORMS ("MADEI-BET") Although as of April 1952 the IDF has established clear distinctions between the appearance of service and work uniforms, as a general habit the military's work uniform ("Madei Bet") has often just been a discarded former service uniform - with some, but a bare minimum of insignia. Lack of insignia on work/battle dress uniforms fulfills two needs: the first, to make the uniform practical and not encumbered with unnecessary regalia; the second - as was also illustrated now in Lebanon - to keep the wearer's identity to the enemy as unknown as possible (in the more recent case, even shoulder strap ranks were remove to conceal the presence of officers). Until the actual separation of dress was instituted in 1952, this simple distinction in appearance was more or less what made one shirt a service shirt and another a work shirt (uniform). In reality, as early as 1950, there really has been a specially made - or at least designated - "Madei Bet" uniform, and soldiers are issued at least one pair for wear during their service. However, for replacement purposes or for assignments involving much filth or dirt, discarded service uniforms are usually used (and therefore seen in many photographs). Especially in the first years of the IDF this practice served the military well, being starved as it was for funding in a state coping with the aftermath of war, regional economic boycott and the absorption of over a million new immigrants. Such a practice exists even to this day, with servicemen donning clothes with issue dates as far back as 35 years. Here are some examples of military shirts used as battle dress uniforms from the period 1948 - 1949. All pictures are from after the establishment of the IDF (May 1948), though the inconsistencies in dress many be due to the initial presence of materials from numerous pre-State sources. |
Soldiers of the Alexandroni brigade, 1948: exhibiting a variety of uniforms (and kitting) worn. One fighter wears a tunic over his shirt, two others don light khaki shirts and trousers, with others in even lighter shirts and shorts. I'm checking the origins of the clothes and will add more details here as they become available. |
Soldiers in the Negev, 1948: another example of varied field wear: the soldier on the left is wearing a British khaki drill shirt, probably with American khaki shorts; the soldier beside him in an Arab "Keffiyeh" and tee-shirt may be wearing British shorts judging by their waist straps; beside him, also in a "Keffiyeh", is a soldier in standard American styled shirt and shorts of the time, though sporting the Arab Legion badge on his "Keffiyeh" (probably captured elsewhere as the Arab Legion fought on the West Bank area, although this is not their "Keffiyeh", which is chequered white and red) and a belt which looks like a Third Reich Luftwaffe type. The soldier on the far right wears a collared shirt of a popular style of that time which unfortunately, with two pockets and such buttons, I've only seen in the form of a German Army M41 shirt. |
Ariel Sharon in 1948 as a platoon commander in the Alexandroni brigade. A more detailed view of the popular collared shirt design, here with no pockets - looking therefore like a British Army [other ranks] 3-button woollen shirt. With visible pocket buttons on his pants it looks like he's wearing the British Army 1940 issue. |
On "ATA Stores" Supplies One source (a "source" - an article on "IDF uniforms" in Wikipedia in Hebrew, unfortunately) suggests that certain khaki civilian clothes used in the War of Independence came from a factory called "ATA". ATA - an acronym for "Organizations of Produce from Our Land", a name given by Nobel Laureate Shay Agnon - was a factory which produced a series of day-wear and work clothes for civilians and youth movements, mostly khaki and gray for pants, and light blue and white for shirts; it eventually set up a chain of stores called "ATA" ("Khanuyot Ata" - Ata Stores) which sold its goods, mostly in the 1950's and '60s. See first picture and top description in Yediot Achronot (in Hebrew) here. As we shall see just after this section, Israeli uniforms were appropriately labelled as such from the beginning: as early as 1949 Army uniforms had military markings applied, and period photographs from 1947-48, after the UN decision to partition Eretz Israel and the beginning of the War of Independence, but before the declaration of independence itself, show military policemen already sporting "MP" brassards as if an actual entity called "the army" existed. Therefore, it's highly unlikely un-military marked clothes were [widely] used in any Israeli conflict, so I would dismiss this above postulation. Nevertheless, to broaden our awareness, below are some pictures of an ATA produced light-green pair of shorts (probably from 1953). |
The First Work/Battle-Dress Uniform Based on physical examples on hand, it looks like the IDF's first proper work/battle-dress uniform was a light-khaki domestically produced outfit. With information at the time of this writing being scant, I can't say exactly when these uniforms were introduced (i.e. whether they were worn before 1949, or if they were worn before the armistice of February-March 1949, or only afterwards). Period photographs don't show clearly any of the specific details we will see below now. But for the purposes of our study, we have a set of pants dated June 1949 and a shirt dated January 1950 to go by. Stylistically, the cut of these "madei Bets" is quite different to that of the Alefs seen so far. Pocket flaps in particular are angular both on the front of the shirt and the rear of the pants on the first Israeli-made work uniforms - actually a rare cut on IDF uniforms, as they mostly have straight lined flaps. Regarding pant rears in particular (a rather abstract subject!), period American khaki's either had a straight-lined stitched slit pocket integrated into the rear of the pants, or no rear pocket at all. Regarding markings, both pieces display a standardized cloth army-issued tag bearing the Hebrew word for 'Army' - "Tzava" - together with a date underneath (month/year), next to the entry space for the size and the suppliers name below. The shirt in this case also has the Hebrew letter 'Tzadi' (for the first letter of 'Army') stamped inside together with what are probably a 2-digit size number and a supplier/manufacturer code. Later in the 1950's, work/battle-dress shirts would also be stamped on the front with the Hebrew word for 'IDF' ("Tzahal"). |
The British Drill Uniform Although I have not been able to establish firm timelines as yet, the domestically produced Bet uniforms were probably phased out around 1950-51. Apart from using the odd cast-off service uniform for work purposes, the IDF began to institute the mass use of coarse denim uniforms of a light-khaki type, with large dark buttons for work and battle-dress purposes - the British khaki drill shirt. These were made as early as 1941 and came in two forms: a shirt type with two front pockets (as used in the IDF) and a tunic version with four pockets (the additional two being at the bottom portion of the tunic, which as a shirt would normally tucked into the pants). A departure in style from the previous domestic make, the cut of these uniforms set the course for the design of future "Bet" and "Alef" uniforms: shirts with two front pockets and pants with a large 'cargo' pocket on each side. The shoulder straps on these uniforms specifically also had curved tips as opposed to the angular ends of the domestic issues from before. From photographs it appears that these uniforms began to bear the stamp "IDF" in large Hebrew letters around 1955-56 just before the Sinai Campaign in October of 1956. In some cases the letters appear just over the front pocket on the right side and in others just over the left. Over time, over the years and formats, the initials have settled just above the left pocket. And from that period onward, the defining hallmark of a work/battle-dress uniform - regardless of its material, regardless of whether it was really a service uniform - became the presence of the name "IDF" on the uniform. Only work/battle-dress uniforms bear these initials on them. The location and appearance of the IDF initials in photographs also lets the viewer know if the picture has been inverted (as is sometimes the case in press photography): as long as the IDF initials are in this order from right to left - öä''ì - the picture is not inversed and reflects the original location of all insignia. If the letters in the picture are backwards however, the the details in reality would have been in the opposite sides to what appears in the picture. |